The Village Hidden in the Grave
by Archontruth
Summary: The Fourth Shinobi World War is over, but the death of the last Uchiha has broken an ancient seal and loosed an immortal monster on the world. Under siege by the living dead, the only hope for the shinobi is a traveler from another world sent to aid them in their darkest hour: the vampire Alucard.
1. Worlds Apart

**Chapter One: Worlds Apart**

It rained the day that Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing was laid to rest.

A solitary figure in a long red coat and broad-brimmed fedora stood in the shadow of a towering monument, looking down at the sea of black umbrellas below. Alucard was motionless, ignoring the patter of rain soaking his clothes. The ancient vampire felt a familiar sadness as he watched the casket of his most recent master being lowered into the ground. In more than six centuries of unlife, he had watched countless humans be born, age and die. Losing the ones close to him, like Integra, still hurt. It would always hurt, but it was inevitable. Humans died, while monsters roamed the world until someone finally put them down.

Integra at least had not died young, like so many who fought for Hellsing. Alucard had been able to spare her that at least. There had been close calls, but in the end they had pulled through. Millennium was a fading memory and the Hellsing Organization was stronger than ever. Integra had married and produced heirs in time, and lived to a ripe old age. She died surrounded by friends and family in her eighth decade of life. Her grown son and daughter were down there in the sea of black umbrellas; Alucard's eyes picked them out easily. They were both as strong and smart as their mother, and the organization was safe with them.

Standing behind the pair was a short, stocky blonde woman in an orange uniform who had not aged with the passage of years as the other familiar faces around her had. Her beautiful face was expressionless, her red eyes hidden behind dark glasses. She held an umbrella over the Hellsings and watched Integra's casket being lowered into the ground. She was as solid as stone, his progeny. Their bond had faded over the decades as Seras Victoria left behind "police girl" and became a powerful, experienced Draculina, yet Alucard could feel her grief. She wasn't as used to watching humans grow old and die as he was, but she was strong and she wouldn't let it break her. Alucard felt her gaze on him for a moment; for all that he was hidden in shadow, and nodded to himself.

Seras Victoria was every bit the warrior the Hellsing Organization needed going forward. He hadn't had to intercede on her behalf in years. Her men were well trained, Hellsing was more formidable than ever, and Seras was now one of the strongest vampires on the planet. Alucard knew that he was no longer needed. He had remained at Integra's side, for the love he bore for her as his master, but now that she was gone, Alucard contemplated returning to slumber. Integra's heirs would not deny him the sleep of ages. He was a relic of the past. Seras was the future. She was still young yet, for a vampire, and she was engaged with this modern world in a way that he was not.

A faint pop sounded behind Alucard, along with a faint chiming, like crystal bells. Then a deep, rough voice cursed behind him. "Bloody hell, why are you standing out in the rain?"

"We're in England, Puck. It rains here," Alucard answered absently without turning around.

"I'm aware of that. Why are you out in it?" Puck complained, stepping up to stand beside Alucard. Puck was a short, portly man with chestnut brown skin. His head barely came up to Alucard's waist. Intelligent brown eyes looked out from deep beneath his busy eyebrows. His head was bald, but he sported a long white beard. He leaned on a staff of pale wood that was taller than he was. Puck wore a white suit and slacks with a black shirt, red tie and white leather shoes. He was getting soaked by the rain, and appeared unhappy about it. Noticing the funeral, Puck nodded. "Oh, I see. Someone died?" The dwarf squinted down at the casket. "The latest of the mortals you allow to hold your leash?"

A growl arose in Alucard's throat. "Careful, mage."

Puck, the First among those who wielded the primal magic of creation, chuckled. He extended his hand, and a fat, lit cigar materialized from nowhere. Puffing on it, Puck exhaled a cloud of smoke into the rain. "I meant no disrespect, Alucard. From everything I hear the Hellsings are exemplary mortals. I just don't understand why you still torture yourself this way. I know you care about the descendants of that man who defeated you, but watching them die one after another isn't healthy, even for the King of Vampires."

Alucard grimaced at the title: "King of Vampires". It was a job he'd never wanted or sought, but it was his simply because he was the oldest vampire alive. It made him one of the First, the leaders of the various clans of "monsters" in the world. Together, the First were the closest thing to a governing body claiming sovereignty over the things that went bump in the night. In practice, it amounted to little more than a number of powerful individuals who worked together to kill any supernatural being who stepped too far out of line. If the threat from Millennium had been more than an internal dispute among vampires, the First would have gotten involved.

Alucard cared little for being the Vampire King, and would gladly surrender the throne to another if there was one. But all the vampires older than him were dead or gone, and none of those younger were suitable. He watched as Integra's children and Seras shoveled the first few spades of dirt into the grave. "You may be right, Puck. But without pain, how do we know we're still alive?"

Puck shook his head. "That's the masochist in you talking. I get by just fine without punishing myself."

"I've been thinking about returning to slumber for a while," Alucard admitted. "The Hellsing Organization no longer needs me. Perhaps it's time for a rest."

Puck was quiet for a while, watching as the gathered mourners began to disperse and the gravediggers started filling in the hole. "Any other time I'd encourage you to do just that, Alucard. Take a vacation from consciousness for a while. Unfortunately, something's come up, and you're the only one of the First who's awake and available right now." Puck looked up at the vampire soberly. "There's one more battle that needs to be fought."

"You're awake, Puck. Can't you deal with it?" Alucard asked. He hadn't realized how ready he was to return to slumber until he spoke the words aloud.

The dwarf shook his head. "I can't leave the Eternal Road untended. In any case, this is a job for the King of Vampires."

"What's the problem?" Alucard asked with a sigh.

"Morfion's prison is crumbling," Puck answered sadly "it's going to fail soon, and then he'll be free to ravage the world we banished him to once more." The diminutive mage was ready for Alucard's explosion, and he wasn't disappointed.

Alucard's red eyes blazed behind his orange-tinted glasses, and his fangs filled his mouth. "How? You told me the warriors of that world sealed him away forever?" the vampire's voice dripped with rage and hate.

Puck shook his head. "They did seal him away, and they tied the seal to the blood of the clan that created the seal. There were dozens of them there when they imprisoned Morfion, and it only takes one remaining alive to hold the seal. They should have had too many descendants to ever lose the bloodline entirely, but we may have underestimated the savagery of their culture. I've been feeling them die in droves over the last two decades, and now the last of them are close to death."

Alucard stared into the distance, remembering a time when he hadn't been one of the First, when there had been another King of Vampires: Morfion. His madness had almost destroyed everything. Despising humanity, Morfion and his followers had attempted to exterminate the entire species. He had come perilously close to succeeding before the rest of the First had stopped him. Back then, the Eternal Road was a mystery. Puck and his magely brethren had known far less about it, but driven by desperation they had used it anyways. The First cast Morfion into the void beyond the Eternal Road, believing it the only way to destroy the original vampire after countless other efforts had failed. It was only centuries later that the First discovered that rather than destroying Morfion, their actions had only sent him to another world connected to the Eternal Road, one they knew nothing of. It could have ended in disaster, but the people of that world had seemingly solved the problem of Morfion on their own, utilizing their unique brand of hereditary magic to seal Morfion away in a frozen instant of time; an inescapable prison. But now that prison was in jeopardy.

"He's older than me, Puck; stronger," Alucard admitted reluctantly. "I don't know that I can defeat him alone any more then Millennium's whelps could defeat me. Can none of the other First be awakened?"

"I'm afraid not," Puck admitted. "The old wolf's slumber is the only thing that grants his children the self-control they need to live among the humans. I tried reaching the sidhe, but I can't even scry Arcadia right now. Either they all committed suicide like they threatened to, or the mists around the Realm Eternal are just particularly strong. Gilgamesh is still a stone statue and I don't know when or if he'll ever decide to rejoin us. That just leaves you and me."

Puck stubbed out the remnants of his cigar. "Alucard, we have to try. We… _I_ inflicted our problem on their world out of ignorance, and it will consume them if we let it. I've been eavesdropping on them; they don't even seem to remember sealing Morfion away anymore. It happened so long ago for them that they're unaware of the danger." Puck looked up at the tall vampire seriously. "If you could hold the gate to that world open I'd walk through it and try to help them, but vampires can't manipulate the Eternal Road, so you have to be the one to go to them."

Alucard shook his head, but Puck saw the answer in his eyes. "The bloodline of the clan in that world who sealed Morfion away is fading," the dwarf continued, "but the others like them, the ninja should be able to help you. They warred against and destroyed Morfion's spawn the last time he threatened their villages."

Puck waved his hands, and the rainy hill in England was replaced by a cobblestone walkway winding through the void. Stars danced slowly around them as Puck and Alucard walked the Eternal Road. "What were they called, again?" Alucard asked. "The mortals that sealed Morfion away, I mean."

Puck raised his hand, and a doorway appeared on the edge of the eternal road. On the other side was a sunny, vibrantly green forest. "What was the family's name?" he asked himself with a frown. Then the dwarf's eyes brightened. "Ah yes, Uchiha! They were called the Uchiha clan. They were the only ones with the power over space/time necessary to freeze Morfion like that, so you're going to have to find a different solution this time."

Alucard sighed. "All right then. Wish me luck," he said before stepping through the doorway and vanishing from sight.

* * *

Sitting in the front passenger seat of the Hellsing siblings' limo as one of her men drove, Seras Victoria jerked in her seat as she felt something shift within her. _Goodbye, police girl,_ Alucard's voice whispered in her soul. Then their bond faded away like a morning fog in the sun.

Startled by his commander's sudden movement, the driver glanced at Seras and was surprised to see a single red tear of blood on her cheek. "Sir, are you all right?"

Seras blinked and then wiped the drop of blood away. "Yes. It's nothing. Keep your eye on the road."

"Yes, ma'am."

Seras sat in silence, puzzled. She'd felt her former master's growing desire to return to slumber, but this didn't feel like that. It felt more like he had gone… away.

* * *

It was over. The Fourth Shinobi World War was over. Clouds roiled overhead and thunder rumbled as Uzumaki Naruto, panting and shaking, stood over the battered form of Uchiha Madara. Behind him, the pink-haired kunoichi Haruno Sakura plied her healing arts on the prone form of Hatake Kakashi, trying to keep him from bleeding out from a multitude of injuries. Next to Naruto stood Gaara, Kazekage of the Hidden Sand, his face paler than usual. His left arm ended in a cauterized stump, vaporized by one of Madara's attacks. Miles away, Uchiha Sasuke and Killer Bee lay dead on the battlefield along with thousands of shinobi, samurai, resurrected warriors of ages past and countless clones of the strange Akatsuki known as Zetsu.

Uchiha Madara drew a rattling breath as his blood soaked into the dirt. Incredibly, after all the wounds he had sustained, the man still clung to life. "It's over," Naruto told him, eyes blazing with the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox. It was scary how close Madara had come to his insane dream of enslaving the world. In the final battle he had defeated Killer Bee, the host of the Eight-Tailed Beast. But despite all his efforts, Naruto and his allies had finally beaten him. "The world has united against you and won, Madara," Naruto continued. "There will be peace."

Madara laughed, blood spilling from his lips. "You may have won, but you will never have peace! You don't know what you've unleashed this day, but you'll find out soon. I am the last of the Uchiha, and the only one who remembers the curse. You will regret this day." Madara died laughing, silence heralding the end of the tyrant.

Just as Naruto relaxed, Marada's body shuddered, and his coat and uniform were shredded from within. Silver light erupted from his chest, and Naruto and Gaara saw a seal carved into his skin evaporate before their eyes. The silver light coalesced into a large bat that shot up into the air before taking wing, flying to the southwest at incredible speed.

"What was that?" Sakura yelled.

"I don't know…" Naruto replied. He glanced at Gaara, who shook his head, clueless as well. Then the Kazekage winced and fell to his knees, shock from the loss of his arm hitting him as adrenaline from the battle faded. Sakura finished stabilizing Kakashi, and then headed over to tend to Gaara's wounds. Naruto just looked to the southwest where the silver bat had faded from view, troubled by Madara's mocking final words.

* * *

When the disorientation from stepping off of the Eternal Road faded, Alucard looked around, getting his bearings. The forest was pleasant and sunny, and the vampire grimaced, seeking the shade of the trees. To the east he could see violent storm clouds.

Something felt… different, and Alucard blinked when he looked down and realized that his old outfit was gone. His guns had vanished along with his coat, suit and fedora. "Right," Alucard muttered with a grimace, "forgot about the prohibitions of the Eternal Road." No one was allowed to carry items from a more advanced world into a less advanced one unless they existed there, too. So his oversized handguns had stayed on the Eternal Road, waiting for his return, along with all of the manufactured clothes he had worn. Instead, Alucard found himself wearing what he'd last worn when visiting this world. His garb consisted of dark glasses, a hooded red cloak that fell to his feet and underneath a crimson flak jacket of the style worn in the nearby forest village over a long sleeved black shirt and leggings. It was garb similar to that worn by the local magic users, their "ninja", and served to signal that he was not someone to be trifled with. Alucard didn't wear a forehead protector that declared allegiance to a village.

Leaping up into the trees, Alucard started making his way toward where that forest village had been the last time he visited. He kept his pace casual, not wanting to get near it before nightfall. As memory served, ninja were rather perceptive for mortals, and he wanted to have the cover of nightfall before he snuck into the village to see what had changed since his last visit to this world.

_What was it called?_ Alucard mused to himself. _Oh yes, the locals called it the Village Hidden in the Leaves; Konoha._

* * *

In the far south of the Land of Fire there was a forested valley deep in the mountains. The elevation and abundance of water in the form of multiple lakes and a large river conspired to shroud the valley in fog almost perpetually. Few people lived or farmed there, and it was remembered in the local superstitions of nearby villages as a cursed, haunted place.

One of the few settlements in the region was an ancient shrine that overlooked the fog-shrouded valley. It had been given the foreboding name of Deathwatch Temple, and the monks and priests who lived there were a quiet, solemn bunch in general. On the grounds of their temple and in the valley below they grew a number of rare herbs, spices and funguses that needed the cold, damp air to thrive. They did a brisk trade with shinobi and merchants alike, their main connection to the outside world. They rarely spoke of their mission, though they had never forgotten it, as the rest of the world had. Passed down from one generation of priests to the next was the truth of their vigil. Their task was to watch over the valley, and ensure that if the great evil sealed away in the valley so long ago was ever to return, the ninja villages and feudal lords would have warning. In their scrolls and tomes was recorded the truth of the distant past; the rise of the dead who walked and the immortal monster who commanded them, sealed away so long ago. After so many generations few of the men who served the Deathwatch Temple believed the great evil would ever return, but they kept their vows and kept watch.

Touzen Akira, High Priest of the Deathwatch Order, walked the upper balcony of the shrine, enjoying the fading rays of the evening sun. He had almost completed his stroll when a flash of silver light from the north caught his eye. Frowning, he turned to watch as a streak of silver light shot over the mountains with incredible speed. The old priest's eyes widened in surprise as the light plunged down into the valley. It hit the ground, and for an instant the whole valley was bathed in silver light. A powerful wind howled through the valley, shredding the lingering fog. In the blood red light of the setting sun, Akira, the 59th High Priest of Deathwatch Temple, witnessed the reversal of the event described in the temple's oldest scrolls. The silver light coalesced around a spot halfway down the valley, covering the ground from the river's edge up into the hills. Then the pool of light began to rise, defining as it did so countless buildings. When the light faded, there was an entire village in the valley below. There were no torches or other lights, and many of the buildings were damaged, as though by battle.

Akira felt the blood drain from his face. "The Village Hidden in the Grave has returned," he said numbly. The bells of the Temple began pealing as the other watchers noted the reemergence of the ancient horror. Akira's eyes picked out shadows moving in the phantom village below as the sun set below the horizon. Shaking off his horror, he made his way inside. Messengers had to be sent. The feudal lords and the shinobi had to be warned!


	2. The Fate of Team Eight

**Chapter Two: The Fate of Team Eight**

Deep in the forest outside Konoha was a dense grove of old trees. The forest was primal. It had never known the woodsman's axe or the farmer's plow. The trees there had stood for countless centuries. Hidden by thick brush in the heart of the grove was a tree unlike the others. Its bark was as black as midnight, its leaves blood red even though all the other trees were green, and its twisted limbs clawed at the sky like talons.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, plunging the forest into nightfall, the tree shivered as though in a strong breeze, even though the air was still. The earth beneath its roots began to stir and move. Then a fist shot up from the soil. An arm followed it, and a body. The figure stood, shaking the dirt and debris off of himself. He had gray skin stretched tightly over a gaunt frame and his eyes were yellowed and rheumy. He wore armor of a style abandoned by shinobi centuries earlier in favor of lighter, more flexible body protection. The crimson scale mail covered his torso, legs and arms. His lank, stringy black hair hung straight to his shoulders, and he wore a forehead protector that was marked with a mirrored pair of inverted teardrops. His jaw opened, and his cracked gray tongue ran over yellowed teeth, including a pair of wicked fangs in the place of his incisors, the inspiration for the design on his headband.

He moved jerkily at first, tendons creaking after centuries of slumber. But as he lumbered through the moonlit forest he acquired a sort of deathly grace, and soon took to the trees. He sniffed the air, searching the winds for scents. Hunger gnawed at him, burning in his mind even stronger than the call of his master. The recent escapee from his forest grave knew that he would have to report back to his master, now that his master was free. But first, he needed to hunt. He came to rest on a tree branch, head turning abruptly to the side as his withered nose caught a delicious scent. Changing direction, he bounded through the night.

* * *

With whispers of cloth and sandals striking limbs, four arrivals entered the small clearing in the Konoha forest within moments of each other. A slender, beautiful woman with purple hair and pale eyes with no pupils was joined by a shaggy-haired man with fierce eyes and triangular red marks on his cheeks, a huge, shaggy white dog by his side. Standing on a tree branch above them was a tall, skinny man whose body was mostly obscured by a long hooded jacket and dark glasses.

The purple haired woman, Hyuuga Hinata, sighed as she nodded to the other two jounin. "I thought this whole alliance of the villages to fight the Akatsuki would bring peace, at least for a little while…" she said sadly.

"Trust has never been the shinobi way," Aburame Shino observed quietly from his perch. "Temporary alliance against a man who wanted to end the world doesn't change that, it seems."

"'Temporary' is right," Inuzuka Kiba growled, his ninja dog Akamaru barking his agreement. "Madara's body isn't even cold yet and already the other villages are testing our borders." A decade earlier Konoha had been the largest and strongest of the Hidden Villages, but the attack of Sound and Sand, the devastation wrought by Pain, and the heavy casualties Konoha had suffered in the recently concluded Fourth Shinobi World War had left Konoha dangerously vulnerable. The bulk of their forces were still returning to the Land of Fire, and the former members of Team Eight had been among the uninjured shinobi ordered to return to Konoha at top speed to shore up the village's depleted defenses. What they found was discouraging; foreign shinobi from Rock and Cloud were in the land of fire, taking advantage of Konoha's skeleton crew of defenders to scout far closer to Konoha than they would have been allowed to in peacetime. Hinata, Kiba and Shino had been busy since their return chasing off those encroaching scouts and slowly reclaiming the forests around Konoha. The moon in the sky above them bathed the clearing in light.

A frown crossed Hinata's face, the protruding veins and arteries around her eyes announcing her use of the Byakugan. Kiba noted the look, and the hum of Shino's kikai bugs changing in pitch. "What is it? More Cloud morons?"

"One shinobi by himself headed right for us," Hinata said in surprise, pointing to the west. "He's wearing a full suit of old style armor."

"Coming right for us? Oh good. I'm tired of these Cloud and Rock sissies who just run away," Kiba said, cracking his knuckles.

"Something's off," Shino cautioned. "The kikai don't know what to make of him. No chakra. No… pulse? That can't be right."

A moment later the trio fell into combat stances as the new arrival, a gray-skinned corpse-like figure in red armor, dropped from the trees into the clearing. Hinata gasped as he stepped into the silver moonlight, and Kiba's nose screwed up.

"That headband… do either of you recognize it," Shino asked, first to overcome the shock of the new arrival's appearance and focusing on the double-fanged forehead protector. His companions shook their heads.

"He looks like a corpse!" Hinata breathed in shock.

"Smells like one, too. Long dead," Kiba said, his fingers flexing and growing into claws.

The gaunt, gray figure laughed, a dry, hissing sound issuing from withered lips. The three shinobi blanched as they saw the long, yellowed fangs in his mouth. He flexed his hands, and his fingers grew in length, tipped with wicked claws. "I am Fen, childe of Morfion," the corpse-like figure hissed in a voice so dry and archaically accented that they had trouble understanding it. His long, bladed finger pointed to each of the three in turn. "What clan are you, shinobi?"

"Fen, huh?" Kiba growled, dropping to all fours. "Well wherever you're from, you're not welcome here. This is Konoha's territory. Leave now."

Fen paused, head tilting slightly, a ghastly smile crossing his desiccated face. "Konoha clan?" he hissed. "I do not know this clan. Unimportant. Your blood will serve." With that, he lunged at Hinata, claws extended.

The Hyuuga jounin's eyes narrowed, and she ducked under his first clawed strike, batting away the second. Then his turned, almost blurring with inhuman speed, his knee impacting Hinata's stomach hard, throwing her back. He went at her with his claws again and then leapt away with a snarl as a pair of horizontal tornadoes flew through the space he had been standing in as Kiba and Akamaru leapt to Hinata's defense.

Fen dodged their attacks with more of his startling speed, snorting in contempt as he out maneuvered the dog ninja, returning to Hinata as she got to her feet. His way was blocked again, this time by a dense cloud of insects that surrounded him. Fen laughed again and then filled his lungs until his chest swelled. When he exhaled, it was a noxious green cloud. The kikai bugs dropped as soon as the gas hit them, and Shino winced, calling back the ones who were far enough away to survive.

Hinata had enough time to get to her feet, though, and when Fen came for her again she was ready. More prepared now for his speed, she was able to hold him off, deflecting his attacks as best she could. It was hard, harder than sparring with another shinobi. He was good, incredibly fast, but had no chakra for her Byakugan to trace, making prediction of his moves harder.

Kiba and Akamaru, still in the whirlwind of their dual technique, came barreling in from either side to crush Fen, Grinning, the corpse-like warrior dodged their attacks and reached into the whirlwinds to grab them. Heedless of their chakra shredding his armor and tearing at his dry flesh, he hurled Kiba and Akamaru right at Hinata, whose eyes widened in alarm. They were able to stop the technique and avoid tearing her to shreds, but they couldn't stop their momentum. Dog and man hit the slender woman with bone-breaking force, and they fell in a heap.

Shino barely had time to draw a kunai before Fen blurred and was on top of him. He formed a bug clone from his surviving kikai bugs, but he wasn't the melee fighter that Hinata and Kiba were, and it took only seconds for one of Fen's blurring strikes to get through his guard, claws slicing through cloth and armor to rake across his chest. The bug ninja cried out in pain and then his voice was choked off as Fen grabbed him by the throat and slammed Shino into the tree trunk. The kikai swarmed Fen, but he exhaled more of the poison gas to drive them off. As Shino watched, lungs burning, Fen licked the blood from the tips of his fingers where he had scored Shino. The desiccated warrior made a face. "The insects pollute your blood, shinobi. A pity." Before Shino could react he was airborne, thrown with incredible force by the suddenly disinterested Fen. He slammed into another tree; the back of his head bounced off the bark, and he fell to the ground in a boneless heap, out cold.

Fen hopped down to where Hinata and Kiba were struggling to get up, hurt and in pain. Fen kicked Akamaru hard enough to send the ninja dog sailing into the trees. Kiba got up into a crouch before Fen's fist hit his jaw and knocked him to the ground, out cold. Then Fen grabbed Hinata by the arms, one of which was broken, dragging her to her feet and pinning her against a tree. She tried to kick him, and he tightened his grip on her broken arm until the bones ground together and she screamed. She drew breath only to scream again as his jaws stretched wide and his long fangs sank into her neck. Weakness spread through her muscles with terrifying speed, and she was helpless in his grasp. The harsh sounds as blood poured from her neck and Fen _drank_ it filled her ears. Her limbs going numb, Hinata felt cold spreading through her. _It can't… it can't end like this!_ She thought desperately, the silver moon above filing her eyes.

When Fen let go of her, Hinata slumped to the ground, her back resting against a tree. In the bright moonlight she saw Fen standing over her, and blinked slowly in surprise at the change in him. Fen didn't look like a corpse anymore. His skin had taken on a healthier hue, and he wasn't gaunt or desiccated anymore; he actually filled out the armor he was wearing. His eyes were dark and filled with a cruel light. Blackness eating away at the edges of her vision, Hinata could only watch as he grabbed Kiba and sank his fangs into the dog ninja's neck, beginning to drain his blood as well. Hinata fell into unconsciousness almost gratefully; her last thought that she didn't want to watch her friend die.

* * *

When the dog boy was as pale and drained as his lovely friend, his heart fluttering as weakly as hers, Fen let him go, wiping blood from his lips and smiling in satisfaction. His body burned with vitality, youthful energy and life force stolen from the young shinobi.

All blood was nourishing and delightful to the vampire, but the blood of shinobi was special. Chakra infused blood was not only more potent than that of regular humans, it tasted better. Fen had been a shinobi himself in another era, still considered himself one, but living shinobi were the favored prey of any vampire from the Village Hidden in the Grave, the home of their creator and master Morfion.

Fen eyed the pair he'd drunk from. "Guess I'd better decapitate them," he said to himself. His voice was no longer a hiss but a bass rumble, his body now appearing fully human. It didn't really matter if they rose as ghouls, but if either was a virgin they'd become a vampire, and Fen didn't feel like waiting to find out and potentially having to haul an irritated and confused progeny home; nor could he leave them behind.

"I'd say you've done enough damage tonight, whelp," a laconic male voice said behind him.

Swearing, Fen spun, wondering how the hell someone had snuck up on him. Then he saw the figure in the full length red cloak and swore. It was another vampire, and age _poured_ off of him. Fen was no hatchling himself, but he had spent most of his existence in slumber, he was still weak, and this vampire in front of him was an elder. He wasn't as strong as Morfion, but he was close.

If he hadn't just fed from a pair of shinobi, Fen wouldn't have been able to dodge the wave of blackness, eyes and teeth that poured out of Alucard's sleeve and bore down on him like a wave. As it was, he lost his left foot to snapping teeth, but was able to get out of range. Flush with blood, Fen regenerated it instantly and kept running. For a moment he feared the older vampire would pursue, but apparently he was lucky, because no one chased him.

Fed and fortified, Fen sped south toward the beacon in his mind that was his master. Morfion would want to hear about this new player on the field.

* * *

Shino woke up with a groan. He had a splitting headache, his ears were ringing, and he felt some nasty bruises forming. Pushing past the pain, he got up slowly, dizzy, looking around for his teammates. His silver eyes widened behind his glasses as he saw Hinata and Kiba sprawled on the ground, a tall man in a red cloak hovering over them. "Are you… ANBU?" he asked as he staggered over to them.

The man straightened in surprise, letting his hood slip back to reveal his own dark glasses and long black hair. "Impressive. Most people don't recover from a hit like that so quickly. Shinobi really are impressive mortals." Then he registered the question and shook his head. "I don't know an Anbu. My name is Alucard."

Shino grimaced; not ANBU, a stranger. With a thought he sent some of his remaining kikai bugs winging away toward Konoha and nearby reinforcements. "Where's the guy who attacked us?" Shino asked when he was done, looking around.

"The whelp ran before I could kill him." Alucard glanced at Kiba and Hinata, then back at Shino. "These are your comrades?"

Shino looked back at Hinata and Kiba, dismayed at how pale they were and how shallow their breathing was. He sent some of his remaining kikai bugs winging towards Konoha, towards his family, who would understand he needed help; he didn't have enough of them left to spell out messages in the air. "Yes, they're my friends. Can you help me carry them? Our village isn't far."

Alucard shook his head. "Your village can't help them, shinobi. They've both been bitten. They're dead already."

Shino's eyes narrowed. Hinata and Kiba were weak, but still alive. "They're still alive! We have medics, they can be saved. I need to get them to the village." He moved to pick up Hinata, but Alucard blocked him.

"I understand you want to help them, but they can't be helped. You don't understand what a vampire's bite will do to them. Do you shinobi really not remember the last time you faced the living dead?"

"Vampire?" Shino breathed. A day ago he would not have believed the stranger, but he didn't know what else to call the thing that attacked them, and the wounds on Hinata and Kiba and their lack of blood seemed to lend credence to the idea. Still, even if that was a vampire, he still had to get them medical help "Look, can you please just help me get them to our village?" Shino said.

Alucard looked at Shino thoughtfully. "They mean a lot to you." When Shino nodded fervently, he continued. "Are they virgins?"

Shino's jaw dropped. "What?"

Alucard tugged his glasses off, and his red eyes blazed. "I may be able to help them, but I need to know. Are they virgins?" the vampire growled.

Shino blinked. What did that have to do with- "Hinata is," he answered, glancing at the deathly pale woman. "I don't know about Kiba. He talks a big game, but I've never seen him with a girl." He paused. "How does knowing that help them?"

"If they're virgins, this will help them. If not, they're doomed." Shino gasped as Alucard's mouth opened to reveal fangs like Fen's. Alucard bared and bit into his own wrist, and black blood dripped from the wound.

"You're one of them!" Shino yelled, grabbing a kunai from his pouch. Alucard ignored Shino, prying Hinata's mouth open and holding his bleeding wrist over it. Drops of his blood fell between her lips. "Get away from her!" Shino lunged at Alucard with the kunai.

A black cloud full of eyes and teeth flowed from underneath Alucard's cloak, and Shino leapt back with a curse as an apparition like a many-eyed dog extruded from the vampire's body, growling at him. "Calm down, shinobi. If I wanted to hurt you or your friends you'd all be dead. If you care about them, then I'm the only one who can help them."

"What are you doing to them," Shino asked, conceding Alucard's point but not lowering his kunai.

Alucard let a bit more of his blood drip into Hinata's mouth and then switched to Kiba. "If they're not virgins, they'll become mindless ghouls, and killing them is the only mercy anyone can offer. If they are virgins, then I'm saving them from slavery worse than death by ensuring that they will belong to my bloodline and not Morfion's."

Shino's eyes narrowed. "The one who attacked us, Fen, said he was the 'childe of Morfion'. How do you know that name?"

Alucard sighed. "I was sent here to help you shinobi deal with Morfion, and you're going to need it. He and his surviving spawn are already free." When Kiba had swallowed enough of his blood he withdrew and the gash in his arm sealed itself.

"That's great, but I'm taking them to our village now," Shino said more firmly, his scouting bugs sensing familiar arrivals. Moments later, half a dozen shinobi in hooded white cloaks and animal masks flew out of the trees. Alucard found himself surrounded by a trio of them, three kunai blades pressed to his neck as the other three spirited Kiba and Hinata away and checked on Shino.

"You'll be coming with us too, stranger," the shortest of the three said, a woman with a sultry voice and a weasel mask.

Alucard gave them a toothy grin. "Looks like I am. Is your name Anbu?" He laughed when he was answered with silence, and didn't resist as the ANBU shinobi yanked his arms behind his back and bound his wrists, hustling him off into the woods towards their settlement. _Well, so much for subtlety,_ Alucard mused. Distantly he could feel his two new "children" moving away, being transported faster than he was. "Separating me from those two is not wise," he said, feeling he had to warn the shinobi, even if they were unlikely to listen. "They will lack the self-control to avoid attacking others when they wake."

All he got in response was a jab in the back from a kunai, hard enough to draw blood. "Shut up and walk before I bleed you, freak," the short woman growled.

Alucard chuckled. "Promise?" he said with a leer, licking his lips. One of the taller ANBU shoved him, and he shook his head. "I tried."


	3. Slug Queen and Vampire King

**Chapter Three: Slug Queen and Vampire King**

In the tunnels deep below Konoha, a well-endowed blonde woman in green peered through the window in the door of an interrogation room. She stared for a moment, an expression of disbelief crossing her face. Then she smacked one of the ANBU flanking the door in the shoulder.

"Explain to me why this prisoner is not restrained, and where the hell he got that chair and a glass of wine?" she fumed, reacting with irritation to seeing Alucard reclining in a comfortable-looking tall-backed chair with a glass of ruby liquid in his hand. His red cloak hung over the back of the chair and his crimson flak jacket and black clothes made him look like a dark reflection of a Leaf shinobi.

The ANBU exchanged a harried glance. "We've tried, Tsunade-sama; everything from ropes and chains to seals and binding jutsu. He just slips out of them like he's made of smoke! We have no idea where he's been getting the drinks and furniture. They just appear in there."

Ignoring the chilling implications of a prisoner able to ignore binding jutsus and summon things through five levels of barriers, Tsunade turned and glanced at Morino Ibiki's scarred visage. "What have you gotten out of him?"

Looking even grimmer than usual, Ibiki shrugged. "He says his name is Alucard, and he has freely shared information about himself, the nature of the threat this 'Morfion' poses, and his version of what happened to the Hyuuga girl and the Inuzuka boy. His story about being a vampire is ludicrous, but I can't explain his abilities either. There isn't a bit of chakra in him, but he's slipperier than Orochimaru and we can't quantify his abilities; he wears ninja garb, but we've never encountered jutsu like his and he insists it's not jutsu at all, but his power as a vampire." Ibiki sighed and rubbed face in his hands. "He's been very consistent about what he's offered, and we haven't gotten anything else out of him. He won't tell us where he's from or any details of his past. He just laughed when we tried torturing information out of him and regenerated as fast as we hurt him. Aoba screamed for half an hour and is now in a coma after trying to enter his mind, and I'm not sending another mental jutsu specialist into his head until I have a better handle on how he's resisting mental invasion."

"What about Shino?" Tsunade asked.

"Still being debriefed by my people and going out of his mind worrying about the other two. His story doesn't contradict Alucard's, but he was unconscious for part of the fight, and he confirmed that this guy tried to stop him from bringing Hinata and Kiba back to the village. He told Shino that we couldn't help them. For all we know Alucard here could be this Fen guy who attacked them using a disguising ability. It's convenient that he drove off the other 'vampire' when no one was looking."

Tsunade sighed. "As outlandish as his claim to be a vampire is, I'm inclined to believe it simply because I don't have another explanation for why Kiba and Hinata are still alive." Seeing Ibiki's surprise, she elaborated. "Neither of them is breathing or has a pulse, and there's no chakra in them, but they're awake and coherent, which they shouldn't be since they're both clinically dead. There's no jutsu that could do this, not even Orochimaru's Reincarnation ability: that requires chakra, and whatever's keeping those two alive now, it's not chakra." Glancing at the cell, Tsunade squared her shoulders. "Open it up. I need to talk to him."

The masked ANBU exchanged a look. "Tsunade-sama-" one began, cut off when her fist made a crater in the concrete wall beside his head.

"Open the door," she said with deceptive gentleness.

Alucard glanced up from his contemplation when the door to the room opened, and an irritated looking blonde with an impressive bust walked into the room. "Ah, a new visitor. How can I help-" he paused when she smacked the full cup from his hand, propelling it into the wall with impressive force, breaking a few of his fingers for good measure. "So this isn't a social call, I take it."

Tsunade gave him a fake, deadly smile. "What did you do to my people?"

Alucard shrugged slowly. "Are we talking about the dog boy and the purple haired girl, or the fellow who entered my mind? If it's the latter, he'll recover in a few days, and in my defense I did warn him that he wouldn't like what he found in here," Alucard said, tapping one long finger on his temple.

Tsunade growled and grabbed a handful of his jacket, half-hauling Alucard out of his seat. "Kiba and Hinata. What did you do to them?"

Alucard gave her a toothy grin, his eyes going wide and glinting with feral light. "I saved those two young shinobi from eternal slavery to a monster far older and meaner than myself. They were doomed to become vampires from the moment their attacker drained them. I gave them my blood to make them my children instead of Morfion's, an act of mercy for which you should be thanking me profusely if you care as much about them as your demeanor indicates."

Tsunade let go of his jacket with a look of disgust. "You're asking us to take an awful lot on faith. Tell me where you're from."

Alucard straightened his jacket, looking amused. "I have declined to answer that question because the answer would have no meaning to you." Alucard rose to his feet in one sinuous motion, eyes burning darkly as he stared at Tsunade. The door opened, and the ANBU stepped inside to back her up, wary.

"The answer you and your cohorts want is that I'm from another of your little hidden villages, seeking to gain some petty advantage in your never-ending game of thrust and parry with the other happy little mercenary tribes of this world," Alucard said with disgust plain on his face and in his voice. "I am here because your petty conflicts have resurrected an evil that was safely sealed away and forced me to come here to clean up the mess you just created. Tell me, _shinobi,_ did you even know what you were doing when you wiped out the Uchiha clan and broke the seal on Morfion's prison?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed, recalling Naruto and Sakura's report of the unknown seal carved into Uchiha Madara's body, the one that had dissipated with his death. "I'm the one asking the questions here," Tsunade grated.

Alucard was preparing a retort when he paused, his eyes leaving Tsunade to look up and to the left, seeming to stare through a blank patch of wall. Tsunade felt a chill run through her bones when she realized that he was staring in the exact direction of the hospital room Hinata and Kiba were in, five floors up and half a kilometer away. "No more questions," Alucard said calmly. "I've tolerated your games and your disregard of my warnings because I didn't have anything better to do tonight. I told your comrades that it was dangerous to separate me from the fledglings when they are so newly turned, and now some of 'your people' are going to die for your paranoia unless I go save them. Again." Cutting off the biting tirade, Alucard lifted his red cloak from his chair and slipped it over his shoulders.

"You're not leaving this room," Tsunade warned.

"Not alone, anyways," Alucard allowed with a bare-fanged grin. Then he swirled his cloak and a wave of blackness poured from beneath it, swallowing Tsunade, Ibiki and the ANBU guards before they could even shout.

* * *

Yamanaka Ino tried not to frown as she examined Hyuuga Hinata, who sat on the edge of her hospital bed, dressed in a patient's gown, visibly worried. Ino couldn't blame her. The whole situation was beyond weird. Hinata and Kiba, who was sitting on the next bed over, had been brought in with no heartbeat and the core body temperatures of corpses. But before Ino could even start to determine cause of death, both of them had woken up and started moving around. That's when the ANBU who brought them in called reinforcements. There were two of them in the examination room, and another four outside.

Ino's first suspicion was that someone had used Orochimaru's resurrection jutsu on Hinata and Kiba, but that theory had fallen apart quickly. Victims of the resurrection jutsu still had chakra, but Hinata and Kiba's bodies were both empty of chakra like the corpses that they medically resembled, save for the fact that they weren't dead.

Ino glanced at Hinata's eyes. "Still no luck turning it off?" The veins around Hinata's eyes were protruding, typical for the activation of her Byakugan, and they'd been that way since she was brought in.

Hinata shook her head. "No. I can still see everything." For some reason her Byakugan had been stuck "on" since she woke up. The purple-haired kunoichi pressed a hand to her stomach, looking faintly embarrassed. "I'm sorry to ask Ino, but could we have something to eat if this is going to go much longer?"

Kiba growled in agreement. "I'm starving too, and where's Akamaru?"

Ino nodded, glancing at one of the ANBU, who knocked on the door and sent word for some food to be delivered. "Akamaru has some broken ribs, Kiba. Your sister Hana is taking care of him and you should be able to see him soon."

"So what's wrong with us?" Hinata asked.

Ino paused, struggling for words. _I have no idea_, she admitted to herself, but she couldn't tell Hinata that. She couldn't say that by every medical measure both of them should be dead should be dead, and she'd been hearing disturbing things from the ANBU, both about Shino's debriefing and the mystery prisoner that the Hokage was interrogating. "I'm not sure yet," she told Hinata. "I'd like to get Tsunade-sama's opinion."

Hinata nodded, licking her lips nervously, and Ino noticed something odd. "Open your mouth, will you?" When Hinata complied, Ino examined her fellow kunoichi's incisors with a frown. They looked longer than she remembered, almost as long as Kiba's. Walking over to Kiba, she checked the dog ninja's teeth, ignoring his scowl. Kiba's incisors, which had already been elongated due to his Inuzuka blood, were now fangs long enough to do a snake proud. Picking up a set of medical calipers, Ino took a measurement and made a note of it. She wasn't sure what it meant, but Tsunade would want to know.

Returning to Hinata, Ino was measuring her teeth when her hand slipped as she was adjusting the calipers. Her finger brushed against Hinata's incisor, which was sharper than a razor. It sliced her skin, and blood welled up from the cut.

Only war-honed ninja reflexes saved Ino from what came next. Hinata inhaled sharply as the scent of fresh blood hit her. The purple-haired woman's pale Hyuuga eyes turned red in an instant, and Ino was barely able to snatch her hand away before Hinata's teeth snapped shut where her fingers had been. Hinata blurred into motion, faster than Ino had ever seen the other woman move, tackling Ino to the floor. The medical ninja's wide eyes registered that Hinata's teeth had gotten even longer, and then her arm was against Hinata's throat, warding her off as the other kunoichi lunged and tried to bite her again. Hinata's eyes were feral, and she actually hissed at Ino.

After a moment of shock, the two ANBU in the room sprang into action, grabbing Hinata and wrestling her off of Ino. Then one of the pair went down with a startled yell as Kiba barreled into him, his own eyes red and a terrifying set of fangs filling his mouth. Kiba bit deep into the neck of the ANBU, the blinked as he found his teeth tearing into a log, the ANBU appearing behind him and grabbing him from behind. Kiba snarled and threw himself backward, slamming the ANBU between his body and the wall. Meanwhile, Hinata attacked the other ANBU, who hissed in pain as Hinata's fingers, suddenly tipped by surprisingly sharp claws, tore through the tough material of his jacket and raked his torso, drawing blood that only seemed to inflame the red-eyed Hyuuga further.

As Ino jumped to her feet the door burst open and the four ANBU outside rushed into the room, weapons drawn. The whole thing looked ready to turn into a general melee when a cloud of darkness exploded out of thin air in the middle of the room, spinning and expanding. Kunai hurled into it were deflected harmlessly. The cloud filled most of the room and then collapsed. The ANBU faltered as they saw Tsunade, Ibiki and two more of their number, looking disoriented and arrayed around the red-cloaked stranger who called himself Alucard.

Seeing a threat to the Hokage, the ANBU launched a barrage of kunai, shuriken and offensive jutsus as Alucard, as well as Hinata and Kiba. Frowning, Alucard blurred into motion. He hurled his red cloak at Kiba, which wrapped itself around the dog ninja, somehow deflecting the barrage of metal, fire and lighting directed at him. Alucard himself was hit with a number of attacks, but seemed to be unfazed by them, instead grabbing Hinata and placing his body between her and the attackers. In seconds his back looked like a pincushion of hurled weapons, there were smoking holes in his body from fire jutsu, and electricity played up and down his body. One of his arms was hanging limp, the other had been blown off entirely, and his legs were so riddled with injuries that it seemed impossible that he could still stand.

Tsunade and Ino both gasped in shock with Alucard not only stayed on his feet but turned to face them with a grin, placing himself between Hinata and Kiba and the ANBU. Ino was the first to notice that Alucard's presence had changed Ino and Kiba; their eyes were still red, but there was something more than hunger behind them now; both looked shocked and aware of themselves, staring at Alucard. Hinata's hands and their teeth were normal again.

"How quickly you turn on your own," Alucard growled, shadows swirling around his body and regenerating his wounds as his cloak unwrapped itself from Kiba and returned to him. A small arsenal of kunai and shuriken clattered to the floor around him as they were pushed out of his body. Noting the ANBU preparing another attack, he sighed. "You get one attack for free, shinobi. Do it again and you'll force me to remove the fledglings from this environment before your paranoia and ignorance causes them harm."

Tsunade held up a hand, eyes narrowed, and the ANBU halted, though their weapons remained ready. "I can't let you take my people from the village," she said calmly.

"You couldn't stop me," Alucard replied with a toothy grin. "But more to the point, I can't let you harm these two, and even if you don't mean to, you will end up harming them if you don't listen to me. You shinobi train to control and utilize your chakra; vampires are no different. These two need to be trained to control and utilize their vampiric nature or they will remain a threat to themselves and others. I'm the only one who's going to be able to do that. Every other vampire in this world is your enemy."

Alucard and Tsunade glared at each other, sparks practically flying between the two, and the others in the room drew back, cowed by the dominant presences of the vampire and the Hokage. Tsunade looked away first, glancing at the pair behind Alucard. "Hinata. Kiba. Can you understand me?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," both echoed.

"You are not to leave the village without my permission, with or without this man, am I clear?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," they repeated.

Tsunade smirked at Alucard. "They're my people, not yours."

Alucard raised an eyebrow. "I see. Who in your village will the fledglings be feeding from, then?" Tsunade blinked, and he sighed. "They attacked their friends just now because without my presence as their creator to sustain them they need blood to live, as all vampires do. So I ask again, who will be donating their blood to these two? Who will be preventing them from losing control and killing whoever you allow them to bite? Who will teach them to fight without losing control of their instincts, and defend themselves without chakra to fuel the abilities they've practiced all their lives?" Tsunade didn't answer immediately, listening to quiet reports from the ANBU about what had happened before their arrival and from Ino about Hinata and Kiba's condition.

"Who are you?" Kiba asked Alucard quietly. "I feel like… I know you, somehow." Hinata nodded in agreement.

_I am Alucard. I saved you from becoming the slaves of the one who attacked you by making you my progeny._ Kiba and Hinata exchanged a wide-eyed look as Alucard's voice echoed silently in their minds. _I know you have a lot of questions and you're confused, but I will explain it to you once your Hokage is convinced I'm not a threat. For now, just know that you've been given a great deal of power, and I can teach you to use it for those good of those you care for._

Kiba and Hinata had lived in the world of shinobi all their lives, where trust for anyone outside the village was hard to come by, but both of them could feel that this stranger was telling the truth. They were linked. More than that, as soon as he had appeared, the red haze had receded and they'd been able to think again, still shaken by remembering what they had done. The dreadful hunger was reduced, too.

"I'll concede that what you've told us may be true… vampire," Tsunade conceded. "But none of it explains why we should trust you."

Alucard spread his hands inoffensively. "I could have left at any time, but I didn't. Your barriers and abilities based on chakra don't affect me. I could take these fledglings far away from you, but I won't because this is their home and they want to protect it. I don't expect you to trust me overnight, but you're not giving me a chance at all. You really do need my help. In the weeks and months ahead you'll have more proof than you ever wanted that vampires are terribly real. They will spread over this land, and you shinobi will be their primary targets. With the exception of the three of us in this room, all of them will be like Fen; aggressive, feral, and completely under the control of Morfion, a monster whose only goal is to wipe out human life. All I ask is for a chance to earn your trust."

Tsunade mulled over that. "Then you'll follow my orders?"

Alucard grinned. "You do remind me of Integra, but unfortunately I can't swear fealty to you. All of your nations need to hear what I have to say, without being suspicious that I'm serving one village's interest over another. While I'm in your territory I'll abide by your rules, but I'm not here to participate in your internal conflicts; I'd prefer to see them stop entirely, at least until Morfion and his brood are driven back."

Tsunade's lips twitched as she fought a smile. "Good luck with that. You'll teach these two how to be… vampires?" she said, nodding to Kiba and Hinata.

"Of course."

Tsunade nodded. "All right. First thing's first. If you're taking care of these two, you get to explain their condition to their families." Again the Hokage had to fight a smile, wondering how smug the vampire Alucard would be after facing the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka.

Alucard looked at Tsunade suspiciously for a moment. She'd ceded that last part a bit too easily. Shrugging, Alucard turned to his progeny as the ANBU filed out of the room. "You're both eager to visit your families. Let's go."

"Wait," Tsunade said. "Take Ino with you." The blonde medical jounin looked at Tsunade with some surprise and trepidation. "She'll act as my representative when you talk to the clans. Otherwise they may be upset enough by Hinata and Kiba's condition to attack you. Ino's not vulnerable to mental jutsus, so they'll take her word that this is my will."

Alucard could sense from his progeny's sudden trepidation that this was the truth, so he nodded. Extending a hand, he handed his red cloak to Ino. "Wear this."

Ino took it. "Why?"

"A vampire's hunting instincts are based on human scent. The cloak will mask your scent with mine. It will make being near you easier for Kiba and Hinata while they learn to control their instincts." Alucard's words reminded the pair of the painful hunger they had experienced before he arrived. "For the moment I'm sustaining them directly with my own power, but their bodies still hunger, so wear it for their sakes." Nodding, Ino wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, though she left the hood down.

Satisfied, Alucard turned to Hinata. "Visualize the entrance to your home," he said softly, stepping up in front of her, his hand falling on her shoulder. Hinata blinked, then nodded and closed her eyes bringing to mind the gates of the Hyuuga compound. The two fledgling vampires and the medical ninja flinched as the cloud of blackness enveloped them. When it faded, they were gone.

Tsunade sighed, pressing a palm to her forehead. "It was enough of a pain when Minato was doing that. This will be… interesting." Tsunade headed for her office. As badly as she wanted to go find a bottle of sake, it would have to wait. She had a lot of letters to write (or at least make Shizune write) to allies, and a village council that was going to want answers. "Wonder if the vampire would just bite all of them for me…" she mused, but then shook her head. He'd said he wanted to stay out of village politics, so probably not.


	4. Shinobi Cast Down

**Chapter Four: Shinobi Cast Down**

* * *

Outside of the Hyuuga compound, the night got darker as a swirling black cloud materialized before the gate guards. Even as they drew kunai, the cloud collapsed, revealing four individuals. The gate guards relaxed a bit when they saw Hinata, Kiba and Ino, though their pale eyes focused with suspicion on Alucard, seeing a tall stranger with long black hair who wore a red flak jacket over black clothes.

"Lady Hinata," one of the Hyuuga guards exclaimed, stepping forward with a bow. "Everyone had been so worried! Rumors have been flying around the village that your team was attacked!"

Alucard watched with interest as Hinata took a breath and shifted her body language; losing none of her kunoichi grace, but assuming a more regal air than she put on with her comrades, suddenly looking every inch the warrior princess. "I am unharmed," she deigned to reply. "My father will wish to hear my report."

The guards bowed, but looked at her companions with suspicion. Noting their glares, Hinata frowned. "Ino is here as the Hokage's representative, and Master Alucard is a guest, both of myself and the Hokage. You will show them the proper respect."

Both Hyuuga guards flinched. "Yes, of course Lady Hinata. Our apologies."

Kiba rubbed the back of his head self-consciously, half a grin crossing his face. "You guys don't need me here for this. I'm going to go home and try to explain all of this to my mother before she decides to come find me herself."

Alucard raised an eyebrow, regarding his male progeny. Although he had allowed the Hokage to believe that he was taking the three young shinobi directly to the Hyuuga estate, he had detoured to a deserted rooftop first, sitting them down and running through a primer on what it meant to be a vampire. "Kiba, are you sure you don't want to wait and allow us to accompany you?" Alucard asked. The Hokage had more than hinted that their clans would not be pleased to learn of their children's vampiric transformation, and Alucard had fully expected to fulfill the role of deflecting parental anger off of his progeny and towards himself. After all, he was significantly more durable than they were, if any volatile shinobi relatives decided to become violent over the news.

Kiba shook his head. "Nah, I understand what you were telling me, and the Inuzuka don't stand on ceremony much. My mom's not going to be happy, but I'll explain it to her and meet up when you're done here."

Alucard nodded, and watched the dog ninja disappear onto the rooftops in a single leap, headed home. Even when Kiba was far away, Alucard could still sense him clearly. Putting aside his concerns for the boy, he focused on Hinata, whose worry and fear he could feel behind her perfect façade of regal indifference. Alucard was actually more worried about Hinata than Kiba. The dog ninja was already in touch with his instincts to a far greater extent than most humans, and seemed indifferent to not aging or the idea of drinking blood to live. Hinata, by contrast, seemed more worried the more she learned. Alucard suspected it had to do with her family and the position she occupied as the Hyuuga heir. He suspected she was going to struggle with her vampirism, much as Seras Victoria had.

Alucard was largely indifferent to the wealth on display in the elegant Hyuuga compound. More than most beings he understood the pointlessness of material wealth, and Integra had been surrounded by opulence as well. Alucard was focused more on the people and the chakra-based traps and tools he could see and sense. There were a lot of shinobi, many of them possessing the same enhanced sensory abilities his progeny possessed.

They were shown into the presence of Hyuuga Hiashi, Hinata entering the large audience room first, Ino and Alucard following behind. Hiashi was not alone: the clan elders sat behind him and a number of Hyuuga shinobi in battle dress, including Hyuuga Neji, waited inside, tense and armed. They eyed Alucard with suspicion, hands not far from their weapons.

Hinata bowed to her father and knelt before him. Before speaking, the Hyuuga clan leader activated his Byakugan, and drew a sharp breath, eyes narrowing. A moment later Neji did the same, disbelief writ on his features. "So it's true," Hiashi said heavily. Hinata winced, knowing that he was seeing the same thing she saw when looking at herself or Kiba. No chakra, no heartbeat, just a corpse that was still walking around. "I've been receiving disturbing reports about Konoha ninja turned into the walking dead all night. Explain this, Hinata."

Hiding behind her emotionless mask, Hinata told the story calmly, of being attacked while on patrol by the creature known as Fen, of its chilling speed and strength. Ino filled in the details from Shino's debriefing about the events following Hinata's incapacitation, and what had happened in the hospital. Alucard answered Hiashi's questions about vampirism without hesitation, and firmly refused to discuss his past.

Hiashi looked suspicious when the exchange of information ended. "It's awfully convenient that one 'vampire' attacks my daughter, everyone is knocked unconscious, and suddenly another 'vampire' rescues you." His pale eyes bored into Alucard.

"Shino's kikai bugs witnessed what happened while he was unconscious," Ino explained. "Alucard scared off this Fen before he could kill Hinata or Kiba, and ANBU has confirmed that Shino is not under the effect of any genjutsu or mind control. I'm sorry, Lord Hyuuga, but it's the truth, and the Hokage has decided to permit Alucard to remain in the village and instruct Hinata and Kiba while the threat of these other vampires is investigated."

Hiashi frowned. "Even if I accepted that, what you did to Hinata and the Inuzuka boy seems extreme. By your own confession they were still alive, why not help them?"

Alucard sighed. "I've been explaining this to different people all night. You'd like the alternatives a lot less. By the time I arrived Fen had already drained both of them of blood. At that point medical intervention, no matter how sophisticated, cannot prevent the transmission of vampirism. If I had done nothing your daughter would still be a vampire, but one with no mind of her own; Morfion's descendants have no free will; they're capable of some independent thought but are ultimately slaves to his command. She and Kiba would have been compelled to join the ranks of the enemy you will soon face. With the gift of my blood they retain their own will and minds as free vampires." Alucard bared his teeth to Hiashi in an unfriendly smile. "I could have killed them to prevent them from turning at all. Would that outcome have been preferable to you?"

Red vampire eyes locked with pale Hyuuga ones, and it was Hiashi who looked away first. The Hyuuga clan elders whispered among themselves, speaking to Hiashi. Hinata's father nodded reluctantly. "We are concerned about this development. We do not have enough verified information to be comfortable with a Hyuuga becoming a vampire. But what is done is done, and we will reserve judgment on this development until we know more." Hiashi proclaimed. "This much is clear, however. Hinata, you cannot remain my heir. I name Hyuuga Hanabi as heir of the main branch."

There was silence in the room for a moment. Alucard could feel Hinata's sadness, but also acceptance. "I understand," she said quietly.

One of the elders, a crusty, bald old Hyuuga behind Hiashi who had been identified as Hyuuga Sarumo spoke up. "You will also submit to the Caged Bird Seal." Hinata frowned, and Alucard noted the conflicted expression on a few faces including Neji's as he heard that statement.

Glancing at the green "X" adorning the foreheads of Neji and a few other Hyuugas, Alucard felt a mixture of contempt and amusement. "You can try, but it won't work," Alucard said with disdain.

"You have no voice here, outsider, and no understanding of the Hyuuga clan!" Sarumo proclaimed in an affronted tone.

"I understand you better than you think," Alucard replied, "I'm simply telling you that it won't work. Shinobi seals function by interacting with chakra, which vampires don't have. Ask your allies in ANBU how well their seals worked on me."

"All of this is immaterial," Sarumo spat. "The seal will be applied," he said with venom, rising to his feet.

_Who applies the seal? _Hinata started slightly when she heard Alucard's voice in her head.

_He does,_ she thought back, glancing Sarumo, who was advancing on her. She made no attempt to conceal her disdain for the old man from her master, and Alucard noted that even Hiashi and some of the other elders looked irritated with Sarumo.

Hinata sensed Alucard's amusement. _Let him do it then._ Hinata shot Alucard a questioning glance, but he just grinned and nodded. Deciding to trust her master, she sat still as Sarumo loomed over her. He pressed his palm to her forehead. "Sealing Jutsu: Caged Bird!"

Hinata closed her eyes in resignation, only to open them in surprise when she felt heat wash over her face. Everyone in the room stared as Sarumo yanked his hand back in alarm. It was glowing green, a glow that slowly spread up his arm to his shoulder. He staggered back, staring at his arm, then at Hinata, rage in his eyes. "What did you do?" he yelled.

Hinata squeaked when a hand fell on her shoulder from behind. It was Alucard. "I did warn you that seals don't work on vampires," he told Sarumo with a fanged grin. Then Alucard nimbly jumped backwards, carrying both Ino and Hinata with him. It was just in time too, as suddenly Sarumo's arm tore open down to the bone in half a dozen places, and blood sprayed from his mangled limb in every direction. A few Hyuuga closest to Sarumo were spattered with blood as the old man thrashed around before collapsing, gripping his ruined arm. Shocked silence filled the room again, broken only by the groans of the wounded Hyuuga.

Neji was busy trying not to look happy as the vile old man who had applied the Caged Bird to him and many of his cousins – and seemed to enjoy triggering it for the slightest offense – bled out on the floor. The armed Hyuuga who looked to him for guidance hesitated, but others more personally loyal to the elders drew their weapons, closing on Alucard and Hinata.

"Hold," Hiashi commanded. It was a single word, spoken quietly but firmly, and it was obeyed by every Hyuuga in the room. "Someone tend to Sarumo before he bleeds out on the floor." Ino stepped forward and knelt over the wounded man, green chakra glowing from her hands as she applied her healing arts. When the bleeding was staunched, a pair of Hyuuga servants half-carried him out of the room, Ino following to bandage his wounds. "It would appear you spoke truly about the inefficacy of seals," Hiashi observed dryly. "This does, however, leave us at a bit of an impasse. You must understand, vampire. Our bloodline is our clan's greatest treasure. Hinata is no longer a member of the main branch. She cannot be permitted to join you unsealed."

Alucard laughed. "Is that what this is all about? Vampires cannot produce human offspring. I thought I'd made that clear."

Hiashi's eyes narrowed, but he nodded reluctantly. "The Hokage has chosen to trust you, so for the moment I will take your word for that. If your words should prove false… the Hyuuga clan has a very long reach."

Alucard grinned. "I'm not here to lie to you. Your fears are unfounded. While we're exchanging threats, I'll encourage you to ensure that no attempts made to harm my progeny originate from your clan. I have a long reach, too." With that, a black cloud consumed Alucard and Hinata. When it collapsed, they were gone. In the same instant, the darkness deposited them outside the gates of the Hyuuga compound. It was still dark outside, and it had started pouring rain while they were inside, but Alucard and Hinata ignored it.

"I'm sorry, ninja girl," Alucard said regretfully. "Maybe there was a way that could have turned out better."

Hinata shook her head, surprised at how quickly her sadness had receded into numbness. "Honestly I was expecting that. Hiashi is my father, but he's also responsible for the whole clan. They don't understand of trust vampirism, so having a vampire in the main branch is unthinkable. I knew that would happen as I understood what I'd become." She paused. "Elder Sarumo's arm exploding was unexpected, though."

"I knew it would rebound on him, but I didn't realize it would wound him that badly until I saw the backlash forming," Alucard replied.

"Don't worry," Hinata assured him. "Half of the clan will be toasting you tonight. That man is an arrogant sadist." She paused, heedless of the rain soaking her as she looked back at the compound gates wistfully. "I knew this would stop being home one day, I just thought that day would be when I got married, not joined the ranks of the undead!" She smiled faintly at that, and Alucard chuckled.

Alucard's head rose and he glanced into the shadows. "You found us quickly, bug boy." Hinata blinked as Shino stepped out of the shadows, his heavy, hooded jacket shielding him from the rain.

"Locating you was simple," the bug-nin replied. "Why? The kikai bugs can smell corpses. There are no dead bodies littering Konoha, so vampires stand out."

"Shino!" Hinata said happily, dashing to her former teammate and hugging him. To Shino's credit, he didn't flinch at all in spite of knowing what she had become. "I'm so happy you're okay! Ino said you weren't seriously hurt, but after that fight I was worried."

Shino rolled his left arm, wincing at a pain from his back, but nodded. "I was not badly injured. Why? Apparently, vampires do not like insects."

Hinata sniffed the air and her nose wrinkled a bit. "You do smell different now," she said diplomatically as she stepped back, not wanting to add that the smell was _nauseating_.

Alucard nodded, keeping his distance. "No vampire would bite you willingly. Given your scent I suspect that ingesting your blood would sicken us. Are there more like you?"

Shino raised an eyebrow, but Hinata nodded. "The Aburame are a big clan." Then she saw Shino's brow furrow and her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh! Sorry, Shino." Hinata trusted Alucard, but she realized that Shino probably didn't want to give the vampire any information on his clan.

"I only asked because those insects could be a potent weapon in the fight that's coming. I don't know how much you were told, but there are more like Fen, and the monster who commands them is the reason I'm here. I know no one really trusts me right now, and that's fine. I'm not going to hurt your friends; I'm here to help you."

Shino shrugged. "If Hinata and Kiba trust you, then I will trust you, for now. Why? Their minds are strong. I do not believe they could be compelled to vouch for you if you were an enemy of Konoha."

Alucard was about to offer his thanks when a sharp piece of information stabbed at his mind, coming from the bundle of feelings nestled in the back of his mind that he had mentally labeled "dog boy"; his progeny Kiba. Focusing on it, he could feel a whirlwind of pain, despair and fear; muted by distance, but distinct once he focused on it. Alucard growled, making Hinata and Shino flinch. "Something's wrong. Dog boy's mind is in turmoil, it has been for a little while." A note of disgust entered Alucard's voice. "That mess in there," he waved his hand at the Hyuuga compound, "distracted me."

Hinata and Shino's faces both hardened with resolve. "Where is he?" Hinata asked.

"The tracker bug I left on him will lead me to him," Shino added.

"Don't bother. My way is faster." Trying not to smell the bug ninja, Alucard stepped forward, grabbed the pair by the shoulder and let the darkness envelop their bodies.

* * *

The collapsing cloud of blackness deposited the trio in an alleyway half a kilometer from the Inuzuka clan's home in Konoha. Rain poured down, and there were no lights, so it took them a moment to spot Kiba, slumped against a wall. When a flash of lightning illuminated the alley for a moment Hinata gasped at the sight and Shino tensed in alarm. Kiba's clothes were in tatters, and he was covered in blood, wounds that looked like bite marks all over his body. When they drew closer, they could see his shoulders shaking, and lines of dark blood running down his cheeks from his eyes. He gripped a bloody kunai in his hand. Lightning flashed again, and they saw deep gouges in his cheeks that came from a blade, not bites. Hinata's Byakugan picked up the strips of skin lying on the ground, and she flinched, realizing that someone had cut the red tattooed clan markings from Kiba's face, but even as she watched the skin started growing back before their eyes, regenerating tattoos and all. The bite wounds on his body remained open and bleeding however.

"They won't come off," Kiba groaned, his voice so empty and broken that Shino and Hinata exchanged a shocked look. Never in his life had they heard Kiba sound like this, not even in the worst moments of the Fourth Shinobi World War. "I keep cutting them off, but they grow back. Why do they keep growing back?" Kiba's voice rose to almost a scream at the end, his dull eyes suddenly focusing on Alucard. Kiba's hand moved, raising the bloody kunai blade to his face, and they realized with alarm that Kiba had been attempting to carve his clan tattoos from his own skin. Hinata grabbed Kiba's wrist and plucked the kunai from his grip. Then Alucard guided her to the side and crouched over the dog-nin. Shino saw him bite his wrist again, and place his bleeding flesh in front of Kiba's mouth. "You're hurt, dog boy. Drink. You need to heal." At first Kiba just stared at him, uncaring. "Drink!" Alucard barked, and Hinata shivered as she felt the edge of the compulsion that Alucard directed at Kiba brush past her. Kiba's body moved by reflex, his hands gripping Alucard's arm, his mouth latching onto the dripping wound. Shino looked away, uneasy, as Kiba's throat worked, drinking the offered blood. His cheeks healed fully in a matter of moments, and then the bite wounds on his body started closing, the progress slower. When unmarred flesh peeked through the tears in Kiba's clothes, Alucard extricated his arm from Kiba's grip and healed the gash with a thought.

"Talk to me, dog boy. What happened?" Alucard demanded.

Kiba didn't respond right away, and Hinata crouched beside him, heedless of the alley filth staining her clothes. "Kiba, please, tell us what happened to you," she pleaded.

"H-hinata?" Kiba croaked, his eyes focusing on the purple-haired woman before skipping to the bug-nin on the other side Alucard. "Shino? You're okay?"

"We're all right," Shino assured him. "Who did this to you?"

Kiba flinched as if struck, then started laughing. Shino's brow furrowed in concern, and Hinata covered her mouth with her hands, taken aback. There was no joy in Kiba's bitter laughter, only a hint of madness. When it faded, the dog-nin's head fell forward, his messy brown hair obscuring his eyes. "Kuromaru. The Haimaru Brothers. Even Akamaru." Kiba said in choked gasps. "The ninken all attacked me as soon as I went home." He laughed again, a painful sound to hear. "They didn't even recognize me. They kept saying I was evil, wrong, an abomination while they tried to tear me apart. Mom and Hana barely convinced them to stop, but when they found out what I was, what I've become… mom kicked me out. She said a dead man had no place in the Inuzuka clan, but whatever you did to me doesn't know that, because the tattoos keep growing back," he said, running a hand over the fang-shaped red tattoos on his face. "Why do they keep coming back?"

"Vampires don't age, but it's more than that; we're frozen as we were the instant the dark gift was bestowed," Alucard answered gently. "Those markings are part of who you are, even if your family disagrees," Alucard answered gently.

Kiba nodded mutely, then pressed his hand over his eyes as fresh trails of blood leaked from his eyes and his torso shook. Hinata hugged him, speaking quietly to the devastated dog-nin.

Alucard passed a hand over his face with a sigh. "Are all of your shinobi clans like this? The Hyuugas were a hair short of showing Hinata the door, too." Alucard asked Shino with exasperation.

Shino considered that question. "This outcome is… extreme. Why? No shinobi clan will trust you or those who have been made like you until given a reason. You are an unknown, and shinobi are cautious by nature. But Tsume and Hana love Kiba, and Akamaru was as close to him as a twin brother. There is something else going on here."

"Come on Kiba, let's get out of this alleyway," Hinata said, coaxing the dog-nin to his feet before glancing at Alucard.

"Let's go reclaim Ino and see where your Hokage is putting us up," Alucard said, and the dispirited trio nodded, following him back to the Hyuuga compound.

* * *

In the early hours of the morning as the sun began to stain the eastern sky with light, the Inuzuka compound was woken by the barks and snarls of numerous ninken. It didn't take long for the human occupants of the house to arm themselves and emerge in response to the alarm of the ninja dogs.

When Tsume emerged from the house, she saw a tall figure in red and black standing on the edge of the road, just beyond the Inuzuka lands. A number of the ninken were circling him warily, growling. When Tsume drew closer, the stranger's scent on the wind reached her nose, and she bared her teeth by reflex. "You came to the wrong house, dead man," Tsume snarled, signaling Kuromaru to her side, her fingers flexing into claws.

"I'm exactly where I mean to be, shinobi," Alucard answered her coolly. "It's been made abundantly clear to me that Konoha's politics are none of my business, I just wanted to see the cruelest parent I've encountered in quite some time. The Hyuuga lord is a cold man, but his daughter at least left his presence without being maimed or stripped of her name."

"You're the one who killed my boy, then." Tsume's voice was cold as a grave.

"I'm the one who saved him from eternal slavery. Your pets did a decent job of trying to kill him, though."

"You saved nothing. That thing you sent here last night is not my son," Tsume said evenly. "A corpse that still moves is not a person. The only thing you ensured is that I don't even have a body to bury or a grave to visit because your curse keeps it walking around." There was real grief in her voice, tightly controlled.

Alucard shook his head in disgust. "You know nothing, woman. Your cruelty sickens me. Your son's mind is no different than it was a week ago. Vampirism is a transformation, not an ending."

It was Kuromaru who spoke next. "We remember more than you think, you stinking corpse. The ninken remember when your cursed kind swarmed over this world like a plague. Those who die but yet walk are the enemy of all that lives. Destruction is the only cure for your kind." The huge nin-dog snarled a command, and the others circling Alucard lunged at him. Tsume was surprised to see resigned understanding in Alucard's red eyes before his form shimmered, the nin-dogs flying through his wavering image.

"I understand," Alucard said as his image faded. "But you should understand that there is more than one kind of vampire. I'm here to hunt the vampires you remember, the enslaved children of Morfion. Kiba is free of his taint by my actions. For his sake, I hope you come to understand that. Please share the information you have with your Hokage, for the vampires you remember have indeed returned."

Tsume stared into the distance, stone-faced, her jaw working.

"Vampires always lie. You can't let him poison you with false hope," Kuromaru said as he returned to Tsume's side.

The older woman absently ran her hand through his fur. "I know," she said softly. "The dead man was right about one thing, though." Kuromaru looked at her inquiringly. "If even one vampire has returned, Tsunade does need to know what we know."

For centuries, since long before the founding of Konoha, the Inuzuka and their ninken had kept their memory of the ancient war with the dead. The Inuzuka clan had been formed during that horrific war, as shinobi used forgotten techniques to bond themselves to the war dogs that were bred to fight the vampires, taking on bestial characteristics and imbuing their canine partners both with human intelligence and a vibrant strain of chakra that inflicted lasting wounds on vampiric flesh.

The vampires had been vanquished for so long that by the time Konoha was founded, the Inuzuka saw no reason to invite ridicule on themselves by talking about a menace everyone else had forgotten, but circumstances had changed. There was a powerful and dangerous vampire loose in Konoha, and the Hokage had to be told the truth.


End file.
